Gerard R. Cox, MD, MHA

Gerard R. Cox, MD, MHA was appointed Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Policy and Services in January 2014. In that role, he serves as the principal assistant to the Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Policy and Services and provides executive leadership and oversight to a broad range of activities at the national headquarters of the Veterans Health Administration, including the Offices of Policy and Planning, Informatics and Analytics, Patient Care Services, Public Health, Research and Development, Interagency Health Affairs, and Ethics in Health Care.

Prior to joining the Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Cox served as a U.S. Navy medical officer for more than 30 years. During his military career he held a series of hospital leadership roles that included assignments as Commanding Officer of Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; Executive Officer of U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa, Japan; and Chief of Emergency Medicine and Head of the Primary Care Service Line at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland. In other senior executive positions, Dr. Cox headed the Clinical Operations Division on the staff of the Navy Surgeon General; developed health service support policy for Marines across the globe as Director of Medical Programs and Deputy to the Medical Officer of the Marine Corps at Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps; and served as Assistant Inspector General of the Navy for Medical Matters. He was also a White House physician in the administrations of Presidents William J. Clinton and George W. Bush.

Dr. Cox is a Veteran of the Persian Gulf War, during which he was deployed to a Fleet Hospital in Saudi Arabia (1990-1991). He later oversaw Navy expeditionary health services throughout the Middle East, both ashore and afloat, while serving concurrently as Force Surgeon, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and Fleet Surgeon, U.S. Fifth Fleet (2010-2012).

Dr. Cox received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1983 and earned a Master of Health Administration degree from Tulane University in 1997. He completed a medical internship at the National Naval Medical Center and the combined residency program in emergency medicine at Georgetown University, George Washington University, and the University of Maryland. Dr. Cox is board-certified in emergency medicine, occupational medicine, and health care administration and is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the American College of Healthcare Executives.